I thought this was a bit bland, didn’t really taste of much and could be improved by adding cheese (then again, I think everything can be improved by adding cheese). The Meat Eater thought it was really nice and subtle and didn’t need anything else. Then again, he has tastebuds and can taste everything, whereas I can’t taste anything unless I pour chilli flakes all over whatever I’m eating.

I’m not going to post the recipe this time, as I’ll probably get into trouble if I keep posting all the recipes from the book, but you can find it in The Quorn Kitchen cookbook.

The original recipe calls for making your own pastry (not sure what type, just your average pie-pastry, I suppose) but I used ready-made filo.

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Mushrooms, spinach, potatoes, crème fraiche and filo pastry. Yes, it’s as nice as it sounds.

Mushroom, spinach and potato pie

You can see the recipe at the BBC Good Food website

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The Blue Anchor in Ruckinge does fantastic food and last week we went there for lunch to celebrate The Meat Eater’s 40th birthday with his parents. I’d been there before and know how big the portions are: more than enough for two people and some of the meals come on three plates (one for the main, one for the potatoes, and one for the vegetables). Because I had this knowledge, I opted for the jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw (which came with about a lb of cheese on it, along with a massive salad), while The Meat Eater chose their chilli cheese pie (which the owner assured him was superb). The Meat Eater said it certainly was superb, so I decided to recreate a vegetarian version using the Chilli Con Quorn recipe from the Quorn Kitchen Cookbook.

And here it is.

Quorn chilli cheese pie

Ingredients
1 ready made pastry case
Cheese

300g Quorn Mince
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli powder
2 bay leaves
400g tin chopped tomatoes
300ml vegetable stock
1 green pepper, de-seeded and chopped
400g tin red kidney beans, drained
2 tsp cornflour
1 tbsp water

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan. Fry the onion and garlic until soft and light golden brown. Add the Quorn Mince, spices and bay leaves, fry for 3 minutes.
2. Add the tomatoes, vegetable stock and green pepper and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in the kidney beans and cook for 5 minutes.
4. Mix the cornflour with the water to a smooth paste. Stir into the Quorn chilli to thicken. Cook gently for a further 5 minutes. Remove the bay leaves and discard.

Pour some of the chilli into the pastry case (there will be loads left over, so freeze it to use in the future on rice, jacket potatoes or make more pies out of it), top with grated cheese and put in the oven at 200C for about 15-20 minutes or until the cheese has browned.

I served it with purple sprouting broccoli that I never knew went green when cooked.

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A new cookbook, yay! I’d had my eye on The Boxing Clever Cookbook by Jacqui Jones & Joan Wilmot for a while and kept in my Amazon Wishlist and when I saw it was available for 1p, snapped it up.

It’s designed to help you if you have an organic vegetable box delivery, grow your own vegetables or have an allotment. I have an organic vegetable box delivery from Riverford every fortnight so hoped this book would come in handy in those ‘what do I do with this’ moments?

It doesn’t have any photos but it does have a load of tempting sounding recipes. Tonight, I christened the book with their Leek, Potato and Cheese Pie with Filo Pastry.

Leek, potato and cheese pie with filo pastry (serves 6)

105g butter or margarine
700g leeks, washed and sliced
1 onion, chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
6 sheets frozen filo pastry, defrosted
50g walnuts, toasted and chopped
175g grated cheese, such as Cheddar or Gorgonzola

1. Melt 25g butter or margarine in a pan. Add the leeks and onion, and sauté, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes or until softened. Remove from the pan and set aside.
2. Melt another 25g butter or margarine in the pan and add the sliced potatoes. Sauté for about 5 minutes on each side until the potatoes are crisp. Season with salt and pepper and add to leeks and onions.
3. Preheat oven to 200C (400F/Gas 6).
4. Melt the remaining butter or margarine in a small pan.
5. Place 2 sheets of filo pastry on a 24cm (9.5”) greased baking tray, allowing the pastry sheets to extend over the edge. Brush with a little melted butter or margarine.
6. Layer the leek, potatoes, walnuts and cheese in the centre of the pastry.
7. Gather the filo pastry up over the centre of the pie to cover top and pinch together to seal.
8. Brush with melted butter or margarine and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is crisps and golden.

My variations:
I didn’t have enough leeks so topped up with cabbage
I didn’t have any walnuts or other type of nut, so left them out
I layered four sheets of filo pastry into a shallow dish, not a tray
I didn’t mix up the potato and leeks, but put the potatoes down first, followed by the leeks and cabbage, then topped with the cheese
I layered another four sheets of filo pastry over the top (not gathering it up over the centre)

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This was so quick and easy. You can use whatever you need to use up in the fridge.

1 packet of ready-rolled puff pastry
2 tablespoons sundried tomato puree
2 portabella mushrooms
1 leek
1 pack of mozzarella
1 tomato
salt and pepper
olive oil

Spread the sundried tomato puree over the pastry.

Slice the mushrooms, leek, tomato and mozzarella and layer them on the pastry.

Season with salt and pepper, drizzle with olive oil and bake for about 25 minutes on 200C.

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I’ve had courgettes in my veg box from Abel & Cole for the last four weeks but luckily, The Meat Eater says he’s not fed up with courgettes yet (unlike when he moaned about getting spinach twice in a week) and so I looked in my trusty Leiths Vegetarian Bible for another courgette recipe (they categorise everything by vegetable which is very handy) and found this one. I generally try to avoid pastry and especially pastry and cheese but this time I thought ‘sod it’.

The recipe here is adapted slightly as Leith’s recipe involved making your own pastry and rolling it out and placing it on a damp baking tray and pricking it with a fork and baking it on one side, then turning it over and baking it on the other and so I thought ‘sod that’ and bought some ready rolled.

I also used dried oregano, as I’ve never seen fresh oregano in my life.

While I was making it, I thought it might be a bit bland as it is just simply a layer of mozzarella and a layer of courgette and tomato, but it wasn’t bland at all. I froze the leftovers and heated them up a few days later and they were fine too.

Courgette and tomato tart

Ingredients:

225g ready rolled puff pastry
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
150g mozzarella cheese
6 ripe tomatoes
2 courgettes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
6 fresh basil leaves
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

1. Pre-heat the oven to 220c/gas mark 7.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a frying pan, add the onion and cook over a low heat until soft and golden-brown. Add the garlic and fry for a further 2 minutes. Allow to cool, then scatter over the top of the pastry. Slice the cheese and arrange on top of the onion.
3. Cut the tomatoes and courgettes into slices 1cm thick. Arrange the tomatoes and courgettes in alternate overlapping rows over the tart. Scatter over the herbs, season with salt and pepper and drizzle with the remaining oil. Bake for 20 minutes.

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